Sunday, 16 September 2007

poetry 2.0

what follows is is the coolest thought virus I have been sent in some time (thx Helene) - apologies to those who've seen it already - and to those who havent, enjoy:

(via netlingo who reported it is a real story, although subsequent digging showed that these haiku originated in a salon.com competition salon.com link)

HAIKU POETRY ERROR MESSAGES

In Japan, they have replaced the impersonal and unhelpful Microsoft error messages with Haiku poetry messages. Haiku poetry has strick construction rules, each poem has only 17 syllables; 5 syllables in the first, 7 in the second, and 5 in the third. They are used to communicate a timeless message, often achieving a wistful, yearning and powerful insight through extreme brevity (and are much better than "Your computer has performed an illegal operation.") Here they are:

Your file was so big.It might be very useful.But now it is gone.

The Web site you seekCannot be located, butCountless more exist.

Chaos reigns within.Reflect, repent, and reboot.Order shall return.

Program aborting:Close all that you have worked on.You ask far too much.

3 comments:

i want to hear more about your words: 'Thought virus' -- where did you get this from? What are some other examples?

The haiku is smart. Real smart.

but I couldn't focus as well on it because I loved what you'd already said: thought virus. Although now that I mull it over, it doesn't sound as beautiful the more I write it. Thought virus sounds like a bad thing for a planner. It sounds unshakable, like something I couldn't get away from.

You've got 'thought' which is a beautiful word and then 'virus' which is ugly. errrr.

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John Grant is author of Co-opportunity (Jan10) and the award winning 'Green Marketing Manifesto' (Oct07), and three previous books. John was a co-founder of St Luke's the socially aware ad agency and is the co-founder of Ecoinomy which applies community self organising principles and social web platforms to greening the office through behaviour change. Contact me at john.grant(AT)ecoinomy.com